Easy Vegan Sheppard’s Pie

by Shannon Lintott

As a new vegan, I find that some days I miss my old favourite comfort dishes. This leads me to look at a few different recipes online and then I take a look in my fridge and cupboard and create my old favourites but with new, delicious twists.

This recipe is EASY! And the best thing about it is that you can really make it however you’d like. You can choose to take away and add just about anything – but knowing where to start makes it easier to get the creative juices flowing (aka – drool).

I promise that you won’t miss the meat! Just ask my meat-loving boyfriend, who went for quick seconds!

The amount of ingredients will depend on how many people you need to feed. My recipe will serve 4 but you can double it to feed 6-8 with some leftovers.

Ingredients:

Top Layer

2-3 large potatoes (enough to make roughly a 1” potato layer on top)

½ cup soy or almond milk

½ cup vegan mayo

2 table spoons vegan cream cheese

2 table spoons vegan butter

Vegetable broth/stock

Handful of vegan shredded cheese (your choice, optional)

Bottom Layer

1 tablespoon vegetable/olive oil

1 shallot/small onion

2 large carrots

½ can of corn

½ can of peas

1 large clove of garlic

Pepper, parsley, basil and any additional spices to taste

1 package vegan ground chicken (or beef if you prefer)

Hot sauce to taste (optional)

Directions

Scrub/rinse and cut potatoes into 1” pieces (peel if you desire, I prefer to leave the skin on for taste). In a medium pot, bring water for the potatoes to a boil and add in 2 tablespoons of vegetable stock (or, replace water with broth and omit the stock). Add potatoes, cover and cook until a fork easily splits the potato pieces in half. Drain, mash and add in rest of the top layer ingredients. Stir until smooth then set aside.

Preheat oven to 400F (200C).

In a large frying pan, heat the oil then add the carrots, shallot/onion, garlic and cook until soft. Add vegan ground chicken, corn and peas and cook until hot. Mix in hot sauce to taste if you want an extra kick. You can also add in a bit of chili powder for a kick.

Place the vegan chicken ground and vegetables into the bottom of the dish and flatten so it is level. Add the potato layer on top and flatten. Add parsley and vegan cheese to the top (optional).

Place the dish (no lid) in the middle of the oven and cook for approx. 20 minutes (until cheese melts/potatoes start to get slightly golden on top). Remove, let sit for 10 minutes and serve.*

*Tip: I always have trouble with my dishes spilling over the top and into the oven. I now place any dish onto a cookie sheet and place both in the oven to make the clean-up easier.

Once again, feel free to change this into your own delicious creation, but this will give you a good start. I found this to be just as filling and comforting as the Sheppard’s Pie my mom makes… but don’t tell her that!

Shannon Lintott works in events as a production coordinator and spends her free time exploring the internet, taking photographs, reading or watching movies.  Visit her movie review blog I Like (good) Movies and follow her on Twitter.